Ohio
QAP scoring guide.
Ohio Housing Finance Agency (OHFA) · 2026-2027 QAP
Competitive scoring
Not stated in the QAP or any companion document, and no OHFA-published scoring summary or historical cutoff-score data was located. (For context only, not a stated cutoff: OHFA's most recent 9% round — PY2025, awarded ~May 2026 — funded 25 developments totaling roughly $39.1 million in annual 9% credits across 17 counties, out of the ~$35.6M PY2025 ceiling referenced in the QAP's Exhibit 2, implying a competitive but not extremely oversubscribed round; exact scores of winning vs. losing applications are not published.)
Select a category to read its scoring criteria.
01Neighborhood Opportunity Index
40 pts
02Housing Needs Index
35 pts
03Annual LIHTC Request per LIHTC Unit
25 pts
PY 2026-2027 9% LIHTC QAP with 2027 Technical Amendment (Board Approved 8/20/26 -- the current operative document; originally Board Approved 9/18/25), Section H "Competitive Scoring," pp. 47-48 (scoring table and category calculations); Section F "Award Sequence & Regional Distribution of 9% LIHTC Credit Ceiling," pp. 29-36 (set-asides, regional/county allocation, county limits); Section G "Funding Pools," pp. 37-45 (pool definitions, thresholds, and tiebreaker lists). The Technical Amendment left the point structure, index methodology, and tiebreaker order unchanged from the original 9/18/25 QAP, but updated the Annual LIHTC Request per Unit thresholds from $27,935/$48,252 to $29,500/$51,000 via the QAP's own annual Multifamily Residential Construction Index adjustment.
Tie-breakers
Review the agency’s tie-breaker rules alongside the scoring criteria.
- Fewest LIHTC awards (9% or 4%) in that census tract over past 3 program years
- Pool-specific tiebreaker factors, unique to each of the 4 funding pools
- OHFA Discretion (final tiebreaker)
Development strategy
Explore the documented considerations behind a competitive application.
Screen every site through the Opportunity Index
Run any prospective site through OHFA's Neighborhood Opportunity Index before acquisition. It's worth 40 points -- 40% of the total score, the single largest of the three scoring categories -- so a mediocre site can't be rescued by an efficient LIHTC request or a high-need census tract. It no longer decides close races, though: it ranks #8 of 10 tiebreakers for General Occupancy applications (lower still for other pools), well behind the real #1 tiebreaker in most pools -- the census tract with the fewest LIHTC awards in the past three program years.
OHFA -- 9% LIHTC Qualified Allocation Plan, PY 2026-2027 with 2027 Technical Amendment (Board Approved 8/20/26), Section H "Competitive Scoring" (Neighborhood Opportunity Index) and each funding pool's Tiebreakers list ↗The real #1 tiebreaker is recent award scarcity, not the Opportunity Index
In three of OHFA's four funding pools, the actual first tiebreaker is "fewest LIHTC awards in that census tract over the past three program years" -- it outranks the Opportunity Index (which itself ranks roughly 7th-8th of about 10 factors) in every pool. A site in a tract with recent LIHTC activity is at a real, checkable disadvantage in a close race, regardless of how well it scores on the Opportunity Index or anything else.
OHFA -- 9% LIHTC QAP, PY 2026-2027 with 2027 Technical Amendment, each funding pool's Tiebreakers list ↗Underwriting parameters
OHFA 2026 Multifamily Rental Underwriting Guidelines (effective for applications submitted on/after 1/1/2026), Section B "Underwriting Standards," pp. 4-13 — subsections "Analysis of Project Income" (Vacancy, Income Escalation) p.5, "Analysis of Project Expenses" (Expense Escalation, Opex Reasonableness, Service Coordination cap) p.6, "Analysis of the Development Budget" (Developer Fee, Capitalized Operating/Replacement Reserves, Ongoing Replacement Reserves) pp.7-9, and "Analysis of the Development Cash Flow — Debt Service Coverage Ratio (DSCR)" p.13. Cross-referenced with the PY 2026-2027 9% LIHTC QAP, Section E "Threshold Requirements" (Fees and Developer Fee Limit, p.28) and Section F "Award Sequence & Regional Distribution... Credit Ceiling" (p.29). Bond/50% test language sourced from OHFA's separate 4% LIHTC QAP, "Residential Rental Private Activity Bonds," pp.3-4.
Utility allowance
Preferred method: local_pha
OHFA Utility Allowance Policy (PC-E32) and Utility Allowance Request Form (PC-E30) -- a request/approval procedure, not a self-serve calculator ↗2026-2027 9% LIHTC QAP, Section 43 "Utility Allowances" (p.63), which points to OHFA's Utility Allowance Policy PC-E32 (updated 10/01/2025), Section 1 "Utility Allowance Overview" and Section 5 "Allowable Utility Allowance Sources"